Like most Tams I’m a coffee addict. By coffee, I mean real filter coffee and not the instant variety. It’s almost a blasphemy to call the instant coffee, ’coffee’!
I have used many popular brands of coffee powder, like Narasus, India Coffee etc., About 5 years ago, Amalgamated Coffee Holdings company entered the field with it’s brand ’Coffee Day’. The roasted, ground coffee powder is sold exclusively though their outlets, recently named ’Fresh n’ Ground’. The roasted coffee beans are ground for every order individually.
I’ve been buying their coffee powder almost from the beginning. The best thing about the Coffee Day outlet is the huge variety of coffee powder available. There are both pure varieties and blended varieties. The blended varieties are made from mixing two types of coffee beans! Also available are some varieties with added chicory. All varieties have their own names like ’Selecto’ , ’Fiesta’and so on. What’s more, you can create your own blends from the available ones!
Though the availability of so many varieties of coffee at one place is certainly a good thing, it is also very likely to confuse a new customer as to what should s/he buy! Here, my advice would to find the coffee best suited to your taste by trial and error! Or, take the easy way out and follow what I do. I make my own type! ie, I buy 250 gm of ’Plantation A’ and 50 gm of chicory and request the sales person to mix them up! This is the best coffee powder for me as it makes strong coffee. But by no means the tastes are universal and you may experiment with different coffee varieties.
The type of water used for making decoction is very important. Believe me, it can make or mar a coffee! Never use hard water from your bore well for coffee. Try different brands of water(!) and find the best one. Thanjavur and Kumbakonam are famous for ’degree’ coffee not for nothing. It is the Kaveri water that makes such a superior coffee that’s famous the world over! ( By the way, do you know how ’degree’ coffee got it’s name? Apparantly, it’s because the beans are roasted at a particular degree of temperature! Thanks to quiz at Mylapore Festival for this interesting bit of trivia.)
Ther is one commendable practice that the Coffee Day people follow: They never advertise. You would have never seen a TV ad for this one. Even newspaper ads are very rare. They depend upon the word-of-mouth publicity and pass on the cost saved to the customers in the form of incentives like ’free sugar when you buy coffee’ now and then. Often they come up with innovative ’membership schemes’ in which you become a member by paying a small amount (Rs.20) and you get to buy their products at a discount.
One worthy addition is ’Take Away’ coffee machines at their outlets. Now, coffee from a machine can never be great. But it’s good enough to pass your time while the coffee beans are being ground. And at just Rs. 3/- a cup, it is irresistable!
Recently they have come out with a packaged coffee powder named ’Perfect’. This one has a very high chicory content of 43% and doesn’t make good coffee at all. I don’t recommend it at all, though it is easily available at all grocery shops unlike the freshly ground one which is available only in their own chain store. One more packaged coffee product recently introduced is called ’Fresh n’ Ground’. It’s currently available only in Bangalore and i’m yet to taste it. It carries the assurance of being less than 7 days old, straight from a Coffee Day outlet. They also have a very expensive instant coffee called ’Deep Woods’, which I never bothered to try!
One speciality of Coffee Day outlets is that they also sell accessories like filters for brewing coffee and coffee mugs. They also often have brochures on the techniques of making good coffee, the benefits of drinking coffee etc., which are given free. Now they also sell a tea called ’Tea Day’ which is reasonably priced and tastes fine.
Before I sign off, here’s my tips for making good coffee:
How much powder to use: Have you got a standard scoop that comes with washing powders like ’Surf Ultra’ etc. ? Use three such scoops of powder (i mean coffee powder, silly :-) ) per 500 ml of water for making decoction.
One more tip: Turn off the burner just before the water starts boiling. Vigorously boiling water will spoil the taste of coffee!
So, if you haven’t tasted Coffee Day coffee yet, it’s time you check it out! You may also log on to their web site for information on brewing and the location of Coffee Day outlets.